


Heart's Desire

by alexcat



Series: After the World Ends [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 02:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14781705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Even a child knows that sometimes when you get your heart’s desire, it isn’t what you wanted after all.





	Heart's Desire

Far, far away, Thanos pondered what he had done. He thought it right. He was sure that it was right. But something bothered him. He was now alone. Completely. He wondered who among those silly mortals who fought him survived. He was sure they thought he chose who lived and died but it was truly random once set in motion.

Had Nebula perished too? 

He had not favored her as he had Gamora, but she was his daughter. There had never been a more efficient killing machine in the galaxy than she was. Couldn’t she see he only wanted her to be great? To live up to her full potential? Why must children be so difficult? 

He realized something else. He had nothing further to do. His work was done. 

He smiled at his own perfection and turned to say - but there was no one there. The Black Order was gone. All of them. 

He wondered if any of them could figure it out…

*

The Ancient One stood before him. 

“My child, you are here. I feared that you would make the wrong choice. But your training won out.”

Stephen Strange knew that he was dead. He’d felt himself turning to – dust? 

“I am dead.” 

She looked at him as if she were talking to a child. “Of course you are. But death is not the ending. You know that it is simply a transition into another form of being.”

He felt a sudden panic. “What about Stark? Wong?” 

“Let the living take care of themselves. They are not your concern right now.”

“I saw this. You know I did,” he tried to move but he was stuck where he stood. 

“You did and you know what happens as well. Right now, my child, you must wait.”

“How long?” 

She laughed. “What is time, Stephen Strange?” 

She turned and walked away. He still could not move. 

*

Steve Rogers prayed. After all he’d been through, he still thought there was a god who cared and who loved his creations. He prayed that that god help him to help those who were left, to protect them from further harm. And he selfishly prayed that he not lose any more friends right now. 

Tony stood in the door and watched his lover. Steve was on his knees and tears ran down his face. He knew what Steve was doing, not that he believed any of it, but Steve did. He slipped quietly from the room and went to his shop. 

He brought up the blueprints to his suit and stared, wondering how he could make it safer, more impenetrable. This had been his god, technology. But Ultron had taught him that even technology could not always be controlled. Or fixed. It was a false god. 

He sat down. He’d come here to think. He kept running what Wong had said through his head. _“…time is not like that. Time can be manipulated, moved, reversed. The stone Dr. Strange wore focused the energy to do that, made it easier for a mortal person to do. What he did not tell you, Mr. Stark, is that time can still be manipulated without the stone.”_

But how? Where could he learn this? 

He asked his computer to find files about the Sanctum and the Masters of the Mystic Arts. The computer told him they were a legend only. 

“Hmph, technology fails again.”

“Who are you talking to, Tony Stark?” Nebula appeared almost as if in a puff of smoke. 

Tony was startled but recovered quickly. “I was talking to my computer then I guess to myself. Don’t you talk to yourself?” 

“Many times I am all I have to talk to, so yes, Tony Stark, I do talk to myself.” 

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“Steve Rogers said that I might get some upgrades in Wakanda. The wise girl is smarter than even you, he said. Where is this Wakanda?”

“Africa. On the other side of the world. Hard ass place to find, too.”

“Will you take me there?”

“I, uh, don’t know when I can. Nebula, see, that’s the thing. I want to fix this mess and -“

She cut him off. “I am your best chance at killing Thanos, human.” Her eyes blazed with fury and she moved toward him.

“Hey, hey, calm down. I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I said I was working on it too.”

“I don’t know why Rogers fucks you. You are tedious, Tony Stark.” With that, she stormed off. 

“Gee, thanks, I like you, too.” 

“I heard that!” He heard her shout back at him. 

*

She appeared at Steve’s door. 

“Rogers? Tony Stark is an ass. Can you convince him to take me to Wakanda?” 

Steve smiled at the blue cyborg. “I can’t do a damned thing with him. Besides, they are probably sending someone here.”

She sniffed. “I still think you should mate with the big god. He is pliable.”

Steve laughed as she left him alone. Tony was a lot of things, but Nebula was right, pliable was not one of them. 

 

*

Wong meditated. 

He felt himself reach that plane of existence where his consciousness left the bonds of his human form and moved outward, touching time and space. He did not have Strange’s style and panache but he was a skilled magician in his own right. 

He saw the attack in Hong Kong, saw what Strange did, saw him die over and over again. How many times? Was there a number high enough to count them? It did not matter. Strange was still there, here, he still existed somewhere in the universe. Of that, he was sure. 

He saw Thanos all alone. The Titan looked lost. Wong certainly hoped so. 

Even a child knows that sometimes when you get your heart’s desire, it isn’t what you wanted after all. Perhaps Thanos was coming to that conclusion. 

He wasn’t sure that it would matter much in the end.


End file.
